Historical Understanding Quotes

Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

Why should Americans care about the Nazi back story in World War II? If you don't have the Nazi back story in World War II, World War II is simply not comprehensible.

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

The ifs and buts of history...form an insubstantial if intoxicating diet.

History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.

Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.

The lack of a sense of history is the damnation of the modern world.

People must know the past to understand the present, and to face the future.

I think what I was after was a unifying story that could bring everything together, that could give me a sense of the whole of history.

I write to learn the flow of history.

Americans are in vital need of the instruction that historians can provide.

Teaching the history of the British Empire links in with that of the world: for better and for worse, the Empire made us what we are, forming our national identity. A country that does not understand its own history is unlikely to respect that of others.

History, in illuminating the past, illuminates the present, and in illuminating the present, illuminates the future.

It is the job of the historian to say what is likely, and of faith to say what is possible.

If knowing history made you rich, librarians would be billionaires.

But history is neither watchmaking nor cabinet construction. It is an endeavor toward better understanding.

History justifies whatever we want it to. It teaches absolutely nothing, for it contains everything and gives examples of everything.

Histories are to educate so that we understand better for ourselves and for motivation.

You must read history forward and not backward.

It is not possible to completely eliminate mediation between you as an observer and the history you are trying to understand.

History is not, of course, a cookbook offering pretested recipes. It teaches by analogy, not by maxims. It can illuminate the consequences of actions in comparable situations, yet each generation must discover for itself what situations are in fact comparable.

American history is a quagmire, and the more one knows, the quaggier the mire gets.

I think you can learn from history.

This view of the text comports with the all but unanimous understanding of the Founding Fathers.

If I could have anything - you know, and this is across the board for any presidential candidate - I would have a greater acknowledgment of history in our policy and in our affairs.